For Reflection "...nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2: 4). Anzac Day has come to be considered one of the most sacred days in the year for many Australians, honouring the sacrifice of those who gave their lives so that others could live in peace… Read More »ANZAC Day
St Peter Chanel was a Marist priest and the first martyr of the South Pacific. Read more about his life here. Prayer to St Peter Chanel You left your homelandto proclaim Jesus, Saviour of the world,to the peoples of Oceania. Guided by the Spirit of God,who is the strength of the gentle,you bore witness to… Read More »1841: Death of St Peter Chanel in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) began to celebrate this day in 2003 however the trade union movement internationally has marked this day as the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers since 1996. This celebration is an integral part of the Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health of the ILO. As part of the 2020… Read More »World Day for Health and Safety at Work
Resources including a video, the full text of Bishop Long's Pastoral Message for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker 2020, and graphics are available here. Did you know that for over twenty years now the Catholic Church in Australia has marked the Feast of St Joseph the Worker with a pastoral letter? These letters… Read More »St Joseph the Worker
In the 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year), Pope John Paul II affirmed the groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum from Pope Leo Xlll in 1891 where the fundamental rights and dignity of workers and work were clearly stated. It addressed any ongoing perceived conflict between the provision of capital and labour, acknowledging work as central to vocation, with a key social dimension that relates directly to the common good
In his 2005 book Perfect Passwords, security researcher Mark Burnett encourages people to have a 'password day' when thy would update important passwords. Intel Security took up the idea in May 2013 and promoted World Password Day. The day is intended to create awareness of the need for good password security and it is observed… Read More »World Password Day
Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv is the first Vietnamese born bishop to lead a diocese outside of Vietnam and the first Vietnamese born bishop in Australia. He was born in 1961 in Dong Nai in Vietnam. Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, his family has been dispersed. In 1984, Vincent Long became… Read More »2016: Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen appointed Bishop of Parramatta
World Fair Trade Day is celebrated on the second Saturday of May every year around the world.
The following reflection is from Andy Hamilton SJ. Andy is an Australian Jesuit, Consulting Editor of Eureka Street, Editorial Consultant to Australian Catholics, and a member of the communications team at Jesuit Social Services. The coronavirus has put enormous pressures on all of us as persons, and on the groups and institutions to which we… Read More »International Day of Families
Rerum Novarum was a groundbreaking encyclical from Pope Leo Xlll in 1891 that laid the foundation for modern Catholic Social Teaching. It directly took up the issue of the dignity and rights of workers in a rapidly changing world where industrialisation had created an ever widening gap between the materially rich and the working poor.
250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have endorsed the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart after an exhaustive and comprehensive two-year consultation process around Australia that was designed and led by Aboriginal people. Targeted structural change is called for through the Statement by establishing an ongoing First Nations Voice to Parliament, and a Makarrata Commission ‘to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history’. In 1967, Aboriginal people were counted as citizens of their own nation. Today, they seek to be fully heard, to walk with others, and to build a better future for all Australians.
Sorry Day has been observed since 1998, one year after the Bringing Them Home report was presented in the Australian Federal Parliament. This report detailed the impact of the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Sorry Day offers an opportunity to reflect on the hardship faced when children were… Read More »National Sorry Day
This year marks the 29th anniversary of the Mabo Decision where six out of seven High Court judges agreed that the Meriam people held traditional ownership of the lands of Mer in the Torres Strait. Eddie Koiki Mabo successfully argued that his family’s ancestral land was not owned by the Crown. This landmark decision in the High Court of Australia overturned ‘terra nullius’, an understanding that Australia was empty land belonging to no one before British occupation.
Today we remember the students who were killed in Tiananmen Square while protesting for democracy. For last year's anniversary, Hong Kong Catholics organised an exhibition so that younger generations may gain insight into what happened. Find our more here. Learn about the iconic image of a lone unarmed man confronting a row of tanks here.… Read More »1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre, Bejing
Celebrated every year since 1974, World Environment Day is a good time to focus on the environmental dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals. This year the theme is celebrating biodiversity. The 2020 World Environment Day global campaign aims at highlighting how we as humans are inextricably linked to and depend on nature for our existence… Read More »World Environment Day
